Here to Lead

I updated the resource tab above with several new resources that may interest you.  And in case you’re wondering, all the proceeds from these resources are going to church planting.  So not only will you get field-tested, practical stuff used in a real church, you’ll help start churches at the same time.  Here you go…

Theology 101 is a four part class that you can fully customize and teach to people in your church.  Topics include The Word of God, God the Father, God the Son and Salvation.  The $29 instant download includes the leaders guide, student guide, as well as original Word, InDesign and layered Photoshop files so you can fully customize it for your setting.

Start Here is another class, an 8-part class for new Christians or those interested in Jesus.  It’s our next step for new believers.  The $29 download includes Word and PDF versions of the Leader’s Guides, PDF and InDesign versions of the Leader’s Guide, as well as all the layered graphics.

Introduction to the Old Testament is the third class, a 4-week overview to the Old Testament.  You’ll cover the Torah, History books, Poetry and Prophets and give people a general overview of the Old Testament.  The $29 download includes Word and PDF versions of the Leaders guide, the PDF and InDesign layout of the student book, as well as all the Photoshop files so you can customize the class for your own church.

Group Leader Training is a three-week training module used at Oak Leaf Church to train children, student AND adult small group leaders.  The first two sessions are for all group leaders, and the final session is “breakout” style.  The $49 instant download includes editable versions of the student and leaders guide, original InDesign and Photoshop files, Keynote presentations of the general sessions, and video of Michael teaching the first two sessions.

Long Live the Sermon is a 50-page PDF that will guide you through the key ingredients of a Bible-based, Gospel-focused, Life-changing sermon.  You’ll learn how to write such a message in this $9 instant download.

Docs and Forms 2.0 contains our budget, bylaws, employee handbook, evaluation forms, systems, charts and strategies. You get the original Word files (and other original file formats) so you can change and customize them easily and quickly for your setting.  It’s church organization in a box for $79.

Start Strong is a 79-page curriculum for core groups and launch teams.It’s got Bible studies and practical talks that you can lead with for your group. It’s a $29 instant download.

These resources aren’t just for church planters, either.  We’re seeing a ton of great, established churches benefit from this stuff.

Last year, we announced that we were starting our first campus in the nearby town of Canton.  For the past several months, our team has been meeting and planning and praying, and the grand opening of the Canton Campus was last Sunday.  And after three practice services and a grand opening, I’m happy to announce that….we’re moving!

We signed a three-year lease on part of The Old Ford Building in Downtown Canton.  We will have this space 24-7, and it’s even more cost effective than renting the theater for a few hours on Sunday.  The real win is that this will provide us some space to serve the community and build a presence in Canton.  The team already has some great ideas.  We’re refocusing on serving the community, not just setting up the stuff to pull off a service.  In fact, being a presence in the community and inviting people to church is a major focus of the Canton team this fall.

Will Goodwin, who has been our Creative Arts pastor for the last couple of years is moving to Canton to be the Worship Pastor.  In fact, he and Jamie are literally moving to Canton – they are that committed to this campus.  This is a huge deal, and Will and Tim (our Campus Pastor) are both doing a great job getting involved in the community.

I’d also like to say a huge thanks to two churches in Canton who really rolled out the welcome mat for us.  Revolution Church and Jason Gerdes have been huge friends to us.  WatermarkeChurch  and Gavin Adams have also been a big help.  Andy Jones, who is on staff at Watermarke even joined our team one Saturday to help put out doorhangers!  I’m so encouraged by these kingdom minded churches, and it’s nice to know that we’re not alone.

I’d love your help in spreading the work.  Oak Leaf Canton meets every Sunday at 10am at 151 East Marietta Street in downtown Canton.

This year, we are focusing on growing our church, and part of that focus is being much more intentional welcoming guests.  Every week is someone’s first time at Oak Leaf Church, and we don’t want to take that for granted.  That’s one of the reasons we looked to improve our gift for first time guests.  After a lot of discussion, we settled on this.

This is a simple 4″ mailing tube (we purchased from Uline), wrapped in a full-size label sheet (11×17, cut down to size).  We ordered the tubes and printed the labels ourselves, and a team of volunteers stuck them all on the tube. You can experiment with different tube and label sizes.

Inside the tube is a rolled up t-shirt, a bunch of invite cards, a card for a free drink at our coffee shop, a kids invite card complete with a custom Oak Leaf silly band, and some candy.  Of course, we can change things up and add different things whenever we want.  If we had the money, we’d love to include a USB drive with some audio and video content.  The entire gift costs us about $7, but we think this is a great investment and a cool way to appreciate first time guests.

During our welcome video, we thank all our first time guests for attending and let them know that we have a special gift for them in the lobby.  We’re introducing this weekend, and I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

In 687 BC, the Babylonians destroyed the city of Jerusalem, knocking down the walls, burning the gates and flattening the temple. Over a hundred years later, God birthed a vision the heart of Nehemiah to return to the city and rebuild those walls. Nehemiah didn’t just have a dream, he had a vision. A dream is about the things that could happen; a vision is what should happen. A dream says “somebody should do something;” a vision says, “I will do something.”

Though the walls had been destroyed for more than 100 years and though Nehemiah lived 750 miles away and though he had a job, Nehemiah petitioned the king for permission to return and supplies for the job. But before any of this happened, Nehemiah did three things:

1. He waited. It’s interesting to me that after hearing the news (again), He doesn’t launch a blog, build a core team, raise money or go through 40 Days of Wall Building. He simply waits on the Lord. There’s a big difference between waiting because you’re scared and waiting on the Lord. He’s allowing God to work in Him. In my own live, I’ve learned that visions get stronger with time, while random ideas are replaced with other ideas.

2. He prayed. Nehemiah didn’t plan and scheme for months and then ask God to bless his plans. Prayers were central to the entire process. He prayed for favor with his boss and opportunity to ask for permission. That opportunity presents itself in chapter two. The punchline of the story is that the wall is going to be finished in 52 days, but in this phase, Nehemiah prays for 4 months. That’s three times more praying than working! Don’t set out to build your own wall…make sure you pray so that you end up building God’s wall.

3. He planned. When the king asks Nehemiah what he wants, Nehemiah responds with details. He can do this because while he was praying, He was also planning. He believed God would give him the opportunity, so he got to work on the plan. Planning is a spiritual thing. I’m praying that someone connected to our church would give us a house, and when that happens (yes, I said “when”), we have the plan for church planting interns living there ready to go. We’re praying, but we’re also planning.

During this vision phase, Nehemiah doesn’t have people or money…two things we think are central. Nehemiah just has a vision from the Lord, and this is enough for Him. Throughout the entire process, He will “remember the Lord.”

I’m excited to kick off a brand new series this weekend called “The Wall.”  We’re going to spend six weeks going through the book of Nehemiah, a great story from the Old Testament.  We’re going talk about how a vision becomes reality, and how you can build something important with your life.  I believe this series will be inspiring and faith building.  And beginning this weekend, you have FOUR services on TWO days in TWO cities.

• 6pm on Saturday in Cartersville
• 10am and 11:30 am on Sunday in Cartersville
• 10am on Sunday in Canton!

Church family…I really want you to go out of your way to invite people to church for this series.  In fact, you should stop what you’re doing and send a text or an email or update your facebook status right now.  Inviting people to church is not scary – you can do it!

We’ve dubbed 2010-2011 as “The Year of Growth” at Oak Leaf Church, so I wanted to let you know how Oak Leaf Kids is planning on making that happen.  I’m really, really proud of Bekah and Emily and our whole Oak Leaf Kids team, and excited about what’s in store for this coming school year.

The biggest change is that elementary child is getting a specific small group leader.  While small groups have always been a part of “The City,” we’re making the groups consistent and training group leaders to pastor and shepherd a specific group of children.  I really don’t know of anything more influential you could do at Oak Leaf Church than intentionally shepherd children to follow Jesus with their lives.

By placing every child in a small group, we’re looking to increase the level of care and teaching that we provide.  We’re looking to be even more intentional about helping children view their schools as mission fields, invite their friends, serve the community, and trust Jesus more and more every day.  If you’re a parent, it’s so important to have another adult speaking God’s truth into the life of your child on a consistent basis, and your child’s small group leader can be that person.

Children and parents will meet their new small group leaders at a Family Ministry Open House on September 12.  This is for all preschoolers, elementary children and teenagers (and their families).  In addition to meeting group leaders at this event, you’ll get the calendar for the events and hear more about the vision.

I’m really excited about the direction and vision for Oak Leaf Kids.

As we move into a year of growth, I’m really excited about the direction of our Student Ministry.  Russon is building a team and laying a solid foundation, and I believe this will be a pivotal year.

Like all elementary children, every student at Oak Leaf Church is getting a set small group leader this year.  Small groups are going to be an important time of our weekly student service on Wednesday night.  This service now includes worship (with the Fuel band), large-group teaching, and small groups.

We’re training small group leaders in the same way that we train adults, and these small group leaders are going to be the backbone of this ministry.  Parents, if it hasn’t happened already, then there will come a time when you want a Godly adult saying the same thing you’re saying at home.  For this reason, small groups and small group leaders are crucial.

We’re also adding several events – a weekend event (with another local church), a mission trip, and a summer camp – to the calendar. You’ll get information on all these events, plus meet your small group leader, at the Family Ministry Open House on September 12.

This year, we are placing a huge emphasis on groups throughout our church.  Elementary children and teenagers are all being placed in small groups, and we’re emphasizing adult groups throughout our organization.

For us, a small group is like a little church.  Everything that our church does on a macro scale, our groups are doing on a small scale.  This means that groups will make a concerted effort to get people to church, to serve the community, and to reach out to others.  Community, fellowship and teaching will happen in groups as well.  Think of groups like colonies or outposts – they have the same DNA as the church, but they are smaller, and in many ways, more meaningful.  Imagine…

• Group leaders acting like “little pastors,” really providing spiritual care for their members
• Groups deciding to go on a mission trip together
• Groups organizing and serving somewhere together – building community and helping people at the same time
• A group of people truly praying for each other
• Groups of people studying the Bible, knowing the Gospel more and more

We want every adult in our church to be connected to a small group.  In order to make this happen, we’re starting by training leaders.  I am personally leading three weeks of group leader training, and the first session is tonight at 6pm.  This same training applies to those leading preschool, elementary, student and adult small groups at Oak Leaf Church.  Here’s the PDF of the material that we’ll be covering, and hard copies will be available tonight.

Two years ago, after a lot of thought, counsel and prayer, we created a pro-kids policy built on the belief that our weekend services were most appropriate for adults and teenagers and the kids environments were most appropriate for children.

There were two basic arguments that led to the creation of our policy.

1. Distractions.  We want nearby adults to be able to focus on the worship and teaching without distraction, and parents to be able to focus on the worship and teaching without trying to keep their child quiet.
2. Environments.  A forty-minute sermon may not be the best environment for a child to learn about Jesus, however a creative lesson filled with Bible stories and crafts is.

From time to time, we evaluate everything in our church to make sure it’s effective and accomplishing goals.  Our Lead Team recently re-evaluated this pro-kids policy, and after a lot of thought, prayer and counsel…it’s time for a change. We still believe that our kids environments are the best place for children, but we’re going to leave this decision up to parents.  We’re no longer going to keep elementary children out of our weekend services.

We recognize that a first time guest may not feel entirely comfortable leaving their children. Of course, we want to show them the environments and help them feel comfortable, but we don’t want to turn away people who want to worship either.  In the end, we feel like our policy was too much of a barrier and prevented too many people from visiting our church.  The payoff just wasn’t worth the price.

In regards to distraction, I have to be honest.  The House of Rock is about 200 feet from train tracks, and no child is more distracting than a passing train on the weekend.  Teenagers taking and cell phones are probably more distracting than children.  In the rare circumstance that a child is being too much of a disruption, our ushers can appropriately handle the situation.

I still believe that our kid’s environments are the best environments for children – I have three children and they all learn about Jesus at our church.  We’re also teaching them at home, so this is a great partnership.  For this reason, our ushers and greeters are going to do their best to show parents all that happens in our kid’s environments and make sure they are aware of all that is offered.

We want every child in our church to get involved in their appropriate environment, under the leadership of a committed and caring small group leader who will shepherd that child.  But should parents want to bring their child into worship, we’re going to trust and support the parent.

In the Old Testament, God’s glory was on display in Eden, at Mt. Sinai, in the tabernacle and later the temple.  In the New Testament, God’s glory is manifest in the person Jesus.  But where is God’s glory on display now? Ephesians 3:7-11 answers the question.  God’s glory is now on display in the church.  No matter what George Barna thinks.

There’s a nonchalant attitude towards the church today.  Some people consider their Bible study, prayer group, moms group, food pantry, or mens group a church.  But three guys at Starbucks isn’t a church…it’s three guys at Starbucks.  Where two are three are gathered, Jesus is present, but that’s not a church.  A church is much more that a group of Christians hanging out.

Mark Driscoll defines a church like this:  A community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord, organized under qualified leadership, gathering regularly for preaching worship, observing the biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, unified by the spirit and scattered to fulfill the great commission.

Here’s what the Bible says about the local church.

• “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” – Matthew 16:18
• “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.  Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with his own blood.” – Acts 20:28
• “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” – Hebrews 10:25

Many people have lost their vision for the church because they don’t understand what the Bible says.  it’s not a collection of human programs or a set of ministries; it’s the means by which God has chosen to accomplish his purpose for us and for the world.  I love this quote from John Stott.

“If the church is central to God’s purpose, as seen in both history and the gospel, it must surely also be central to our lives.  How can we take lightly what God takes so seriously?  How dare we push to the circumference what God has placed at the center.”

Growing as a Christian is not something you can do on your own…it requires relationship and community…and church.  I think if we understood this, we’d take more vacations during the week when we missed work, than on the weekend when we’d miss church.

Jesus didn’t say that he would build his worship band, 501(c) organization, mission trip or social ministry…He said He would build His church.  Don’t tack the church on to your weekly schedule; make what is important to God important to you and your family.